Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) workers have seen on average, a pay decline of approximately $284,000 over four years since 2014, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) said yesterday.
Speaking about the plight of sugar workers at the union’s end-of-year press conference at its headquarters in Kingston, GAWU’s General Secretary Seepaul Narine said that from GuySuCo’s financial statements between 2014 and 2017, the average pay per worker in the sugar industry declined, on average, by $284,000.
“Undoubtedly, it must be difficult for the workers to look around and see their relatives and friends employed elsewhere benefitting from increases in pay and improved working conditions whereas they are worse off than they were four years ago,” Narine said. According to him, GuySuCo has returned to the state it was in in the early 1980s.
He said at that time, the sugar company was faced with an identical situation and it was only rectified when the workers’ pay rates, which he said has not changed since 2014, were aligned with “reality.”
“As 2018 comes to an end, it is disheartening to register that workers in the sugar industry are being paid rates-of-pay that were adjusted last in 2014. In the over 1,500 days or over [the] four-year period that has elapsed since the GuySuCo has chosen not to award its employees a pay rise, the workers have had to contend with several new measures,” he said. Citing the Bureau of Statistics, he said that the cost of food has increased by 12.4%, in that period while the cost of medical and personal care has also increased by 8.5%.
Narine also provided figures for this year’s sugar production which show that GuySuCo has produced more than their 2018 target of 103,002 tonnes of sugar.
According to the data for the Albion Estate, while the target was 19,698 and 37,031 for the first and second crop respectively, they were able to produce 18,231 tonnes, which is less than the target, for the first crop and 38,549 tonnes for the second crop, which exceeded its target.
The Blairmont Estate had set a target of 9,736 tonnes and 19,091 tonnes for the first and second crop and while they were only able to produce 9,333 for the first crop, the second crop exceeded its target as they were able to produce 20,123 tonnes.
For the Uitvlugt estate, with a target of 6,671 tonnes and 10,775 tonnes, they were able to produce 6,474 tonnes and 10,801 tonnes for the first and second crop respectively.
The three estates combined, produced a total of 103,511 tonnes as of December 22, as compared to its target of 103,002 tonnes.
Narine said that while they are happy about the development, coupled with the production bonus scheme that the corporation wants to institute, the workers are concerned that GuySuCo is yet to consider GAWU’s claim for a 15% raise in pay retroactive from January of this year.
“At the end of the day, the bonus while welcomed, at the same time will see workers in 2019 earning the same rates of pay that were approved since 2014. GAWU has put forward a counter-proposal regarding the bonus and the corporation has committed to examining our suggestion,” Narine said. He asserted that they also believe that this “stop-gap” measure cannot be deemed as a substitute for an increase in wages that has been denied for “too long.”
Narine also touched on the no-confidence motion that was passed in the National Assembly last Friday. He said that the union is urging that the verdict be accepted and the requisite measures be put in place.
“Our union, also, at this time, looks to the Guyana Elections Commission to put in place adequate systems to safeguard and ensure that the Official List of Electors is properly reflective of legitimate electors, that the Guyanese people’s franchise is properly recorded and that our elections are deemed free and fair and also free from fear,” he said.
